7 Best SEO Software For Small Businesses In 2022 [FREE Trials]

Do you want to drive organic traffic to your site?

Then you have to work with SEO software.

You may write a lot of content without working on any of your SEO aspects, but you may not score high rankings.

Whether free or paid, you definitely need to have some SEO tool to guide you.

This post will explore 7 of the best SEO software for small businesses, their pros and cons, and also the free trial details.

What features do the best SEO software for small businesses usually offer?

The first thing to understand about all the best SEO software for small businesses is that overall they have similar same core features and functionalities. The question is which one is the best one for you.

All the best SEO software for small businesses includes the key elements of SEO:

• Keyword Research: Information about the volume and difficulty level of different keyword
• Domain/ URL Analysis: Data about the performance of other websites, which is helpful to research your competition
• Site Audit: A complete check of your site including keywords, on-page SEO, technical issues, and backlink metrics
• Link Tracking: You can identify your own backlinks and also your competitors, and identify link-building opportunities
• Content Marketing: Tools for you to research content opportunities and create them
• Position Tracking: You can track the position of your website pages in search engines for different keywords
• Content Gap Analysis: Information about the keywords your competition ranks for but you don’t
• Project Monitoring: You can set up websites as projects, to understand their performance and track them over time

What is common among all the best SEO software for small businesses?

The most common elements of the best SEO tools that offer free trials are:

• They are freemium, offering some basic features in the free versions
• The free versions don’t let you really perform SEO work, they just help you get used to the tool
• They have different pricing levels based on the extent of different needs
• They offer discounts on annual subscriptions
• While the lowest pricing plan gives access to 1 user, the higher plans give access to more users, making them perfect for big SEO teams and agencies
• For most of the SEO tools, you have to enter your credit card details before you sign up

What are the differences between the best SEO software for small businesses?

These are the key differences between the best SEO tools:

• The number of features or data sets they offer per pricing plan
• Some features may be different or extra in some SEO tools
• The algorithms to calculate the SEO data are different
• The size of the database the tools have, to calculate the key data
• The interface and user experience

Of course, they might also have a few features which might be different from each other.

That is why they also offer free trials so you can check out the user experience and if the tool is meeting your needs before you use their paid versions.

7 best SEO software for small businesses in 2022 (that also offer free trials)

There are plenty of SEO tools that small businesses can use, and most of them offer free trials, but they are not all equally effective and worth their money.

Here is a selection of the best SEO software for small businesses.

1. Semrush

I will definitely feature this SEO tool first because it is my go-to, favorite SEO software for small businesses.

Semrush is not just an SEO tool, it is an all-in-1 tool for digital marketing, including tools for advertising and social media marketing. @semrush

It provides very in-depth SEO information, making it quick and easy to do all the SEO research and take quick, informed decisions.

Semrush is currently one of the best SEO software for small businesses, because of the number of features and data it offers.

Try out Semrush now

Plus Points

• Semrush has very high data accuracy and provides in-depth information
• It gives detailed information on local SEO and advertising as well
• It helps you identify your competition, even if you don’t know who they are yet
• You can save all related and semantic keywords in for different posts in different lists in the Keywords Manager, and skip the need for separate Excel sheets
• The free trial gives you access to all the tools, to make it easier for you to decide whether to buy the subscription
• Semrush gives you search intent data on keywords, so you know whether to target a certain keyword for your blog posts or your product pages

What could be better

• It takes some time to get the best out of Semrush as it has so much to offer
• Because it is a very advanced tool with high data accuracy, the price point is a bit high for beginners
• Provides SEO data only from Google, not Bing or Yahoo

Semrush Pricing

Semrush has 3 different price points depending on your profile and needs. The prices range from $99.95 — $374.95 per month if you sign up for annual plans.

Semrush Pro Plan: $99.95 per month for annual signups and $119.95 per month for monthly subscriptions

Semrush Guru Plan: $191.62 per month for annual signups and $229.95 per month for monthly subscriptions

Semrush Business Plan: $374.95 per month for annual signups and $449.95 per month for monthly subscriptions

Which businesses are Semrush best for?

The Pro plan of Semrush is most applicable for small businesses, solopreneurs, bloggers, and freelancers who are serious about SEO and want to boost their website performance significantly.

The Guru and Business plans are recommended for bigger businesses and agencies with dedicated SEO and content teams.

Semrush Free Trial

A regular Semrush free trial is valid for 7 days.

But with this link, you can get an exclusive 14-day trial.

Credit card required for signup? You have to enter your credit card details for the signup period. But don’t worry, if you decide not to sign up for the tool, you will not be charged.

Use this link to get a 14-day trial.

Note: If you go for the monthly subscription and then decide to stop it, you cannot do it yourself. You just send Semrush an email and they will cancel it.

Try out Semrush now.

2. Moz Pro

Moz is another powerful SEO software for small businesses that offers almost all the same features as Semrush.

You can do keyword research, site audits, rank tracking, and also find link-building opportunities.

You can also create keyword lists to add all semantic keywords, like in Semrush.

Try out Moz Pro now.

Plus Points

• Moz has a metric called Keyword Priority, which suggests to you the keywords that are worth targeting for your site
• The link intersect tool lets you compare backlinks for 5 domains at one go
• The entry-level price point is slightly lesser than Semrush

What could be better

• While Moz gives a lot of in-depth data, its dashboard and user experience are not very intuitive
• Moz does not provide an idea about the traffic of other domains, so you can’t compare their traffic to yours

Moz Pro Pricing

Moz offers 4 different plans and price points as per needs, ranging between $99 and $599.

If you sign up for an annual plan, you get a 20% discount.

Moz Standard Plan: $79 per month for annual signups and $99 per month for monthly subscriptions

Moz Medium Plan: $143 per month for annual signups and $179 per month for monthly subscriptions

Moz Large Plan: $239 per month for annual signups and $299 per month for monthly subscriptions

Moz Premium Plan: $479 per month for annual signups and $599 per month for monthly subscriptions

Which businesses is Moz Pro best for?

Solopreneurs and freelancers who just need basic SEO help can opt for the Standard plan, whereas bloggers and small businesses of 1–3 people or bigger (who have higher revenues) should try out the Medium plan.

The Large and Premium plans are best for big businesses, agencies, and SEO specialists.

Moz Pro Free Trial

A Moz free trial is for 30 days, but not for its Standard plan, only the Pro one, which is priced at $179 monthly.

Credit card required for signup? Yes, you have to sign up with a credit card for the trial. If you don’t want to sign up for a subscription, you can cancel within the 30 day period and you will not get charged.

Try out Moz Pro now.

3. SE Ranking

SE Ranking describes itself as ‘all-in-one software’ made simple.

It is one of the best SEO software for small businesses that offer a lot of features of Semrush and Moz, at a lower price point.

It does have an easy user experience per se, but like all tools, it also needs some getting used to.

One of the best advantages of SE Ranking is that you can choose a custom pricing within a plan, depending on the number of metrics you need, at which frequency.

Try out SE Ranking now.

Plus points

• It’s simple to set up and get started
• It is more affordable than the more sophisticated SEO tools
• You can choose a price point based on your exact keyword needs (quantity and frequency)
• It has some special features like a white label, which could be helpful for agencies

What could be better

• The SE Ranking data is not as comprehensive as Semrush & Ahrefs, so in-depth information is limited
• Customer support is not round the clock, so if you have an urgent question you have to wait

SE Ranking Pricing

SE Ranking also has 3 plans, with the most basic one starting at $23.52 per month if you sign up for an annual plan and need weekly ranking reports.

See below how your pricing changes when you change your requirements.

If you add more keywords and a higher frequency, you pay more.

Which businesses is SE Ranking best for?

The SE Ranking Essential Plan could be a starting SEO tool for small businesses of 1–3 people and solopreneurs because of its relatively easy user experience and low price point.

Small businesses that are slightly larger scale and work with content/ SEO specialists should consider the Pro plan. They would n

SE Ranking Free Trial

SE Ranking offers a free trial for 14 days, and you can get access to all features in that period.

Credit card required for signup? You don’t need to sign up with a credit card for the free trial of the SEO tool SE Ranking. Just set up an account and you’re good to go.

Try out SE Ranking now

4. SEO Powersuite

Seo Powersuite is also an all-in-1 SEO software for small businesses that offers many of the same features as the above 3 tools of research (keyword, competition), site audit, and link management, but it works very differently.

Unlike the other SEO tools with free trials that are online, it is a desktop app that you can download and start using for free.

Also, instead of just jumping to perform the function you want, you have to start with a project (a website that you want to monitor).

SEO Powersuite is a combination of 4 different tools:

• Rank Tracker: See the SERP ranking details of a website
• SpyGlass: Build a link outreach strategy
• Link Assistant: Implement your link building campaign
• Website Auditor: Do a full site audit

These 4 tools have different creators for different purposes, and they joined hands much later.

They are, however, very well integrated within the dashboard and work together seamlessly.

Try out SEO Powersuite now

Plus Points

• You can use the SEO Powersuite toolkit offline
• It is much cheaper than the high-end SEO tools but still provides a lot of data
• It is relatively easy for beginners

What could be better

• The user interface and features are not as advanced as the upper-end SEO tools
• If you are used to other online SEO software, it takes some time to get used to the SEO Powersuite
• Since the SEO Powersuite tool is a desktop one, you cannot access it from another device unless you install it there as well. You cannot access the tool just with an internet connection anywhere.

SEO Powersuite Pricing

SEO Powersuite is only available for annual signups and is much cheaper than Semrush & Moz.

You start off by downloading the tool on your desktop, creating an account, and start using it.

You get unlimited keywords and website information included in the free plan.

So the question is, why buy a license? Why pay for it at all?

The drawback of the free version is that you cannot save any of your SEO data.

So if you get all the data of your website once, you cannot copy it, and next time you open the toolkit, you have to start from scratch.

This means that you also cannot track progress.

SEO Powersuite Professional Plan: $299 a year, no monthly plan available

SEO Powersuite Enterprise Plan: $499 a year, no monthly plan available

Which businesses is SEO Powersuite best for?

The SEO Powersuite Professional version could be the best SEO software for small businesses, solopreneurs, and freelancers who want to work on their SEO.

The Enterprise plan includes tracking for more projects than the Professional and is best for SEO specialists or agencies that manage multiple clients.

SEO Powersuite Free Trial

As mentioned above, you just download the software and start using it for free.

Credit card required for signup? You don’t need a credit card to download the Powersuite toolkit. You only need it when you buy a license.

Try out SEO Powersuite now

5. Mangools

Mangools is a toolkit consisting of 5 different tools:

• KWFinder: Keyword research tool
• SERPChecker: Analyze the top-ranking pages for strong and weak points
• SERPWatcher: A rank tracking tool that lets you know your site’s position in Google for a certain keyword
• LinkMiner: A backlink analyzer tool. It also shows you a snapshot of the page that linked to you, and where
• SiteProfiler: Gives you a quick overview of a site

Try out Mangools now.

The plus points

• The dashboard is very clean and beginner-friendly
• Mangools has a feature called the SERP Features Impact which shows you how crowded the SERP is for your target term
• The SERPChecker lets you compare your target URL with the current top-ranking pages, so you can spot content opportunities

What could be better

• Unlike SEO Powersuite which also combines different toolkits, the 5 apps within Mangools are not very well integrated
• The features are not as advanced as Semrush or Moz

Mangools Pricing

The Mangools pricing starts at $49 for a monthly subscription (Mangools Basic), but it has limited features.

Mangools Basic Plan: $29 per month for annual signups and $49 per month for monthly subscriptions

Mangools Premium Plan: $39.90 per month for annual signups and $69 per month for monthly subscriptions

Mangools Agency Plan: $79.90 per month for annual signups and $129 per month for monthly subscriptions

Which plan is best suited to your business?

If you as a small business want to really work on your SEO and make a noticeable impact, you should aim for the more advanced plans like Mangools Premium. It is still cheaper than the basic plan of Semrush, and has a decent number of features. Mangools Basic doesn’t offer enough features to make a difference.

Mangools Agency is best suited for agencies, as the name suggests.

Mangools Free Trial

The Mangools free trial gives you access to all features in their 10-day trial period, but in a limited way.

For example, you can only do 5 keyword searches per day.

Credit card required for signup? You don’t a credit card to sign up for the free trial.

Ubersuggest is an SEO tool created by SEO expert Neil Patel. It offers

It was launched as a free tool but now is a paid one.

Try out Ubersuggest now

The plus points

• Ubersuggest started as a keyword research tool and it is still their core feature
• It is again more limited in terms of features than Semrush & Moz, but works for basic searches on keywords and links

What could be better

• The marketing features are more limited than Tier A tools like Semrush or Moz
• The free trial offers access to very limited features and is not enough to give you a good feel of the software.

Ubersuggest Pricing

The Ubersuggest pricing starts from $29 a month and goes up to $99 per month.

Ubersuggest Individual Plan: $29 per month for annual signups and $49 per month for monthly subscriptions

Ubersuggest Individual Plan: $29 per month for annual signups and $49 per month for monthly subscriptions

Ubersuggest Individual Plan: $29 per month for annual signups and $49 per month for monthly subscriptions

Currently, it has an offer of a lifetime subscription for $290 for the Individual plan, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Which businesses should use Ubersuggest?

The Ubersuggest Individual Plan could be the best SEO software for all small businesses, solopreneurs and freelancers, who are primarily focused on keyword research and don’t need a lot of updated link data and other advanced SEO features.

The Business and Enterprise plan includes a lot more reports and tracking, so they could be relevant for medium to large businesses and agencies.

Ubersuggest Free Trial

You can get an Ubersuggest free trial for 7 days, with limited access to their features.

Credit card required for signup? Yes, you need to enter your credit card details, but you will only be charged once the trial period is over.

If you do not want to upgrade to the paid version, remember to cancel your subscription within the trial period.

Try out Ubersuggest now

7. Ahrefs

Before I started to use Semrush, I was using Ahrefs, which is another complete, advanced SEO tool.

It is one of the most powerful ones, but the reason it’s last on this list is that Ahrefs does not have a ‘free’ trial period.

But more on that below.

Try out Ahrefs now

The plus points

• Ahrefs is a very advanced SEO tool offering loads of features and data on domains, keywords, links, content
• It is especially powerful to track top-performing content, backlinks, and also the top pages of your own and competitor's websites

What could be better

• Like most sophisticated SEO tools, Ahrefs is priced slightly high, compared to medium tools like Mangools and Ubersuggest.

Ahrefs Pricing

Ahrefs offers 4 different plans with pricing ranging from $99 — $999 for monthly plans.

Which businesses is Ahrefs best for?

The Ahrefs Lite Plan is the best SEO software for small businesses, solopreneurs, and freelancers, who need in-depth data but are fine with limited features.

Some of the best tools of Ahrefs like those in the Site Explorer (Content Gap, Broken Links, Outgoing Links, Link Intersect), Content Explorer, and Domain Comparison, are offered only in the Standard Plan which is very expensive for small businesses.

The Advanced and Enterprise Plan, again, is best left to big businesses and agencies.

Ahrefs Free Trial

Ahrefs does not have a free trial, but it offers a subsidized price of $7 for 7 days.

After the 7 days are up, you have to pay the full amount to use the features.

Credit card required for signup? You have to pay your initial $7 with a credit card, and the same card can be used to pay for your subscription once the 7 days are over.

And there you go!

Those were the details of some of the best SEO software for small businesses.

You may have some starting questions about it, so here are some fundamentals.

What is an SEO software?

An SEO software is an online platform that helps you boost your website’s performance.

It lets you analyze your website’s technical and content status, and provides you with data on keywords, competitor performance, and backlinks.

Why does a small business need an SEO software?

If you have any business, you need to build brand awareness and grow, and that makes having a website very important.

You could place ads to get immediate traffic to your website and get more sustainable organic traffic in the long term.

That is where SEO comes in.

A small business should use an SEO software to get help with the following:

• Research keywords that you could use for your site to boost rankings
• Analyze your competitor’s keywords and links and get insights on how to beat them
• Track the progress of your site in terms of authority and rankings in search engines
• Scan your site for technical issues and other opportunities for improvement
• Get data to guide your link-building campaigns

How to choose the best SEO software for small business that is right for YOU?

You have to choose which is the best SEO tool for your business depending on your specific situation.

The 4 key elements to consider:

1. Goals

Set your business and SEO goals before you decide on an SEO tool.

Do you expect your sales and brand awareness to come more from SEO, or from social media/ ads/ word of mouth/ retail channels?

What do you want to achieve with your SEO exactly? Set SMART goals whenever possible, so you can track them later.

2. Requirements

Depending on what your goals are, what would be the strategy to get there?

Remember, even the best SEO software for small businesses is just that: a software/ tool.

You have to use it in the best way to get the results you want. Which brings us to the next point.

3. Budget

To choose the best software for your businesses, you need to decide your SEO budget first.

You have to do a good balance of how much of an SEO win you need, vs how much you can actually spare from your limited resources.

Semrush is definitely one of the best software for small businesses, but it could be too expensive for you, especially if SEO is not a big goal.

If you have a blogging business, for example, you need organic traffic, and an SEO tool should be a high priority for you.

So a tier-a SEO tool like Semrush would make more sense.

4. User & proficiency level

Determine who will use the SEO software for your business, and what their comfort level is with SEO tools.

Choose an SEO software that has a relatively easier learning curve for the user who will actually be doing the SEO monitoring and research.

If you as an entrepreneur will be using the SEO tool, evaluate how comfortable you are using these tools and which ones are the easiest to start off with.

Recommendations for the best SEO software for small business

My recommendation for the best SEO tool you can choose for your business depends on which level of tool you would want.

If you would like an A-tier tool, go for SE Ranking if the user experience is more important for you, and Semrush if in-depth data is more important.

If you prefer to go with a B-tier tool at first, then Mangools or SEO Powersuite is a good starting point.

Conclusion

The best part about the best SEO software for small businesses is that they offer free trials.

A free trial of an SEO tool is not to really use it for your SEO needs as you get limited data. It is more to get a feel of the tool and the user experience and decide if it is the best fit for your SEO needs.

So overall, whether you are just starting off on your SEO journey or planning to be more focused on it, you should get a free trial of an SEO tool before you decide to pay for it.

Over to you! Which SEO tool did you try out? Did you upgrade to the paid version? Which SEO tool finally worked best for you? Share in the comments!

Originally published at https://weignitegrowth.com on April 9, 2022.